Now you see it, now you don't!

The snow, that is... Between the two storms that hit us last week, we had over a foot of snow on the ground everywhere. And, from even before that, there was a sheet of ice covering half of the driveway. All the signs pointed towards this Christmas being a white one! But not anymore! We are in the middle of a freak December heatwave. And yes, 50 degrees counts as a heat wave, haha! We actually hit 60 for a bit today. Last week, we were in the single-digits! Needless to say, the snow has been melting like crazy. I kept thinking it was raining yesterday, but I was just hearing the melting snow pour off of the roof. And today, the snow is almost completely gone.

I actually had the foresight to take the kids out to play in the snow yesterday, thank goodness! It was nice and warm outside (55!), but the snow was still deep enough for sledding, and it had enough water in it that it was suddenly great for making snowballs and building things. We built our very first snowman of the winter! The kids called him Frosty at first, but Niko later named him Melter (fitting!). I was pretty proud of how he turned out! I take pride in my snowmen, haha!

Anyway, as we expected, Frosty/Melter lived a very short life. He had actually toppled over in less than an hour-- it was just too warm outside! And this was what he looked like this morning. RIP, snowman friend...

In other news... we went to The Old Mill for dinner last night, and it was great (as always). We love it there, especially in the winter, because it's so warm and cozy. This dinner was paid for by Gus' company-- they give everyone money to go out to dinner with their families instead of throwing some big fancy holiday party. I think that is just awesome. We had a lovely evening, made even better by the fact that we didn't have to deal with bulky jackets, scarves, mittens, etc.

Now we have just a few days left until Christmas! The kids are beside themselves with excitement. We baked sugar cookies for Santa this morning (and taste-tested them... Santa will approve). I actually sent them out to play in the backyard by themselves this afternoon... not common in the winter, when they need more help out there (because of the snow). But there was hardly any snow, so they just went out in their rain boots to keep from getting soggy/muddy. So. Weird. It's supposed to be colder again starting on Christmas Eve, but it looks like it's going to be a brown/green Christmas this year. Sort of a bummer. But our heating bill will be a little better, at least!